Monday, October 29, 2007

Well, for the first time ever in my life, I've had a doctor tell me I need to gain weight. ;-) Seems I'm gaining a bit slow. We're officially at 20 weeks right now and I've just gained a total of 4 pounds so far. We're half way. I can hardly believe it.

We had the 20 week ultrasound today. Got some good pictures. We've got a real wiggler. The ultrasound tech was surprised I haven't been able to feel the baby yet, considering how much movement was going on. But it's about the time when I should start feeling it soon.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I made soap yesterday with Erin, one of our neighbors. She's also at home during the day and she was interested in learning how. We had a lot of fun. It's more fun to do projects with someone than alone. She'll be back today this afternoon when it is time to cut the soap.

She's a nice lady and just unloaded a bunch of maternity clothes on me, which was nice. I don't think I'll have to buy much now. She's close to my height (a bit taller) and has two young boys. Real cuties.

We made two batches of soap. One has shea butter and rose hip oil (and cinnamon fragrance and red kaolin clay) as the non-standard ingredients (by non-standard, I mean not one of the base oils I use: castor, palm, olive, coconut, etc.) and the other was Illipe butter and tea tree oil. Hopefully they all come out alright.

I should make up another batch or two to use up some more of the oils I have. They don't last indefinitely. In a "it's a small world" note, Erin's husband is a chemist and he works for the same company that I'd bought most of the oils from. Bizarre.

Having some trouble sleeping lately. Partly it is the can't-get-comfortable thing and partly it's the terrible-pregnancy-heartburn thing. What is up with that? And then when I do get to sleep I either wake up because a) I have to pee again or b) I was having a really funky weird dream (and I'm not even mentioning when Harley, Grace and Tony start snoring in unison).

The dreams are really weird. And very random. Last night I had like 3 dreams about a guy I used to go to middle school with. We were friends, but not close friends (I was really more friends with his sister Colleen) and it wasn't like I ever had a crush on him or anything. So it's really weird to have dreams about someone I haven't thought about in years. The brain is very random.

So I attempted to look the guy up this morning, just to see what he was up to. I don't know that I actually want to contact him (after all, we haven't talked in literally at least 20 years), but it doesn't seem like I have to worry about it either way since he's got one of those names (William Wickham) that makes it impossible to find the person you want. Seems there was a famous William Wickham back in England, some years ago. And there's no way I'm combing through 2 million web pages to find the William I'm looking for.

But, in wandering around looking, I came across http://www.gradfinder.com/ which is a free service similar to classmates.com and reunion.com. So I registered and found another blast from the past -- a guy I went to Prom with in the 10th grade (or maybe 9th?) (Derek Gage). We weren't dating, but most of my friends were seniors and I wanted to go (and, presumably, they wanted me to go too) and celebrate with them. I hung out with a bunch of the artsy people (like Laura DePuy, who I ran into again in St. Pete years later -- actually went to her wedding...she's now Laura Martin and even has her own WikiPedia page...she's a colorist for graphic novels...man, I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, I don't think I've talked to her since then). Derek was one of them and he volunteered to take me along. Actually, I don't know that he volunteered - maybe he was volunteered. Hard to say at this point.

Now I'm trying to remember the names of the other people we all hung out with. There was Mike, who worked at Pizza Hut (and absolutely refused to eat the pizza) and who always wore an old army jacket. Geez, what was his last name? Maybe I'll have to drag out my yearbook.

I moved to Mississippi not long after that (after dad died and the icky bad period started up) and lost track of a lot of people.

You know a funny thing? I actually went to 6 different Proms in high school. That makes me sound like some really popular girl, but that really wasn't the case. Though, looking back, I probably could have been (if it hadn't been for my terrible self-image, etc. etc.). Geez, was I skinny and I always thought I was so fat. I think I might have been borderline anorexic back then. I was a size 0. Of course, I was also 4' 11". Not that I'm any taller now and I'm w-a-y out of a size 0.

Hmmmm. I looked up another old Prom date of mine, who also happened to be an artist. Kris Meadows. Looks like he's doing pretty well too (though he didn't quite look like that in high school but heck, I sure don't look like I did in high school either). We actually met when I sat as a model for an art class at CFCC in Ocala (my mom did too; I have no idea how we got into that...I think she had a friend in the class and they thought it would be cool to have some "Asian" chicks in to model). Not nude or anything. :-) I actually still have the portrait Kris did of me. And now he's a fairly well-known portrait artist. Go figure.

I don't actually remember much of that Prom, but I do remember what happened on the way there -- we passed a dead body in the middle of the road. You don't forget something like that, especially in the days before cell phones.

Gah, who did I even go to the other Proms with? One was with Stephen DuBose (he was a nice guy -- that was in Mississippi...wait, maybe that was two with him...his and mine?). There was that Shane guy...what was his last name? Though his friend Viktor, the Swedish exchange student, was much nicer. And maybe one was just by myself, junior year. Or maybe I went with someone. I don't remember. I just remember the horrible pink dress with the crazy shoulder wing-things. The 80's. *sigh*

Anyway, now that my brain has spewed and the heartburn has died down a little, maybe I can actually get to sleep now.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks!Erase my answers , enter yours, send it on, including to the person who sent it to you.*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...*They have to be real places, names, things..nothing made up!Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question

WHAT IS YOUR NAME........KimberlyVEHICLE: ........................... Kia (I can't think of any others that start with K)TV SHOW: ............................ King of the HillCITY IN TEXAS:.................... Kerrville (had to cheat and look one up...why Texas?)BOY NAME: .......................... KaneGIRL NAME: ......................... KristenOCCUPATION: ...................... Knight (well, it used to be)CELEBRITY: ......................... Keira KnightleyFOOD: ................................. KefirSOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: ..... KleenexREASON FOR BEING LATE: ...................... KleptomaniaCARTOON CHARACTER:........... Kim Possible (isn't that a cartoon?)SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: ....................... Keep it on the road!

Friday, October 05, 2007

When people hear that you've sold a book (and by people here I'm referring to non-writers, since I can't imagine a writer would say this) and that it is a book for kids/teens, the first thing they seem to say nowadays is "Wow, is it going to be the next Harry Potter??" or something to that effect.

Honestly, that's really annoying.

It's not that I wouldn't like for my book(s) to make me a multi-millionaire. But the chances of that are so slim it would be like winning the lottery. Maybe not quite that bad, since there are other things involved than luck, but still.

There are hundreds of talented authors out there and the vast majority of them are still working at another job while writing. Even for those lucky enough to "just" be an author, most still rely at least partly on the income of a spouse. You don't become a writer because you want to be a millionaire. You become a writer because you can't imagine doing anything else.

Of course, there are the big huge names like Rowling and King and others. But they are exceptions to the rule, not the standard. And it is a bit of a self-perpetrating thing...once you reach that upper echelon (through whatever combination of luck and talent), publishers put more effort into advertising you, and your books show up on the NY Times Bestseller list and people buy the books because they see them there, or maybe Oprah pitched the book on her show...

I guess what I'm saying is that my goal is to be a writer; it isn't to be a household-name-mega-millionaire. Not that I would turn that down, should it become an option. :-) But it isn't what I'm thinking or dreaming about. I'll be really happy if enough of my book(s) sell that I can continue writing them. I'll be really happy if there are people out there who like to read them.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

I suppose part of it is the pregnancy thing and part of it is I just stayed up way too late last night, but I'm just desperately tired. Like a wrung-out washcloth. Like a celebutante at 7 AM the next day. Like...well, like Paris Hilton. But I guess that's a different kind of tired.

Pam is all excited about her upcoming nupital celebration (why does no one use that word?). She's already planned out most of it, even though she's got a long way to go. But she's a planner.

Lisa still thinks I'm the weird one in the family (and truth be told, given the alternative, I'm perfectly okay with that). She was asking me about whether we'd started looking at baby stuff already (not really, just a little) and her direct quote was "You're going to get all weird stuff, aren't you?" I'm not even sure what kind of weird stuff she's talking about. But my idea of weird and her idea of weird are vastly different. I remember she visited one time and wouldn't drink my organic milk.

Mom, on the other hand, doesn't usually comment on my supposed "weirdness" but she didn't sound all that enthused on our possible girl name (Dessie, Tony's grandmother's name). She's like "Oh. That's different." But I'd rather have something a little different (but not totally out there; don't want to traumatize the kid) than one of the "top 10 baby names for 2008." I remember being in the fifth grade and being one of 5 Kimberlys. And I can't tell you how many Emily and Ryan kiddos I've seen running around.

I'd kind of like the middle name to be Coraline, but I'm not sure about that. I like it, but probably like in the book, everyone would just mispronounce it as Caroline.

Tony is doing good. He's cranking along on his blog and going all international (well, at least Greek. Some Greek blogger liked his chicken cacciatore recipe).

Harley is still doing his Darth Vader cat thing, but we can't get him to take allergy pills. He foams at the mouth when you try it. If I could get him a little Darth kitty costume for Halloween (and actually get him to wear it), it'd be perfect.

What is this, anyway?

This is my personal blog and very officially un-official and full of things that won't make sense to anyone else. Notes. Word counts. Somewhat atrocious poetry. Research. Reviews of things so that my sieve of a brain remembers them. Things I write that'll never see the light of day under my real name because my agent would kill me. Well, maim maybe. I don't think anyone actually wants to kill me. I'm just a writer, lost in the wilderness.